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Articles 31 - 59 of 59
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Differences In The Extent Of Use Of Culture In The Classroom Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Teachers And The Relationship To Student Reported Academic Achievement In Reading And Math, Nicole M. Butt
Theses and Dissertations
With the historical lack of academic achievement of American Indian/ Alaskan Native (AI/AN) students in public schooling, Indigenous communities have expressed the need to emphasize Indigenous culture in the education of AI/AN students. This study investigated if the relationship between the use of Indigenous culture and academic achievement can be validated through the use of the National Indian Education Survey database. This study examined (1) if there is a difference in the extent of AI/AN culture used in the classroom between Indigenous teachers and non-Indigenous teachers, (2) if there is a relationship between the student reported academic achievement of AI/AN …
We Are Aquin: The Creation Of Community And Personal Identity In The Freeport Catholic Schools, Sherry Ann Cluver
We Are Aquin: The Creation Of Community And Personal Identity In The Freeport Catholic Schools, Sherry Ann Cluver
Theses and Dissertations
Aquin Central Catholic High School, a tiny institution in the rural, Midwestern town of Freeport, Illinois, is a case study unlike the schools from Chicago, Boston, and other large cities highlighted in previous scholarship. Freeport's patterns of schooling in the 1970s and 1980s were largely unaffected by race or "white flight," and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford afforded to its schools a greater than usual degree of local control. Yet, Aquin (founded in 1923) followed the trends of Catholic schools with regard to the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), assimilation of previously immigrant Catholic families into middle class American social …
Hybrid Gulf — Excavating Future Identities, Robert Canak
Hybrid Gulf — Excavating Future Identities, Robert Canak
Theses and Dissertations
This Project examines the coexistence of two cultures?–?in this case the host Gulf, and the imported Western?–?and addresses certain problems that still need attention. This Project celebrates the creation of the third, hybrid, culture as a result of their intermingling. In this Research, Postcolonial Theory? and Transitional Object Theory? are used as conceptual frameworks, and are combined with Archaeology and Design as a practice. On a personal level, the Project evolved out of my cross-cultural origin and experiences. On an academic level, the Project serves as an experiment, trying to fill the gaps in the Gulf region’s search for identity. …
Gettin' Weird Together: The Performance Of Identity And Community Through Cultural Artifacts Of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Andrew Matthew Wagner
Gettin' Weird Together: The Performance Of Identity And Community Through Cultural Artifacts Of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Andrew Matthew Wagner
Theses and Dissertations
The growing popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) on nearly every continent has given rise to the transition of EDM music from underground raves to large scale, multiple-day music festivals. Attendance at EDM events, whether at concerts or festivals, is primarily dominated by today's youth generation. The number of youth attending these events continues to grow as elements of EDM are being mixed into other mainstream music genres. This increase in the popularity of EDM has been an area of research interest in the past decades for a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, marketing, and tourism. The present …
A Cultural Lens Into The Story Underneath: A Resource Guide Of African American Art, Artists And Culture For Art Education, Valerie Graves
A Cultural Lens Into The Story Underneath: A Resource Guide Of African American Art, Artists And Culture For Art Education, Valerie Graves
Theses and Dissertations
The goal of this study is to create a qualitative resource guide of African American culture, art, and artists for an art education curriculum. This project encompasses four main themes to reflect an area of African American culture via a work of art created by an African American artist. These themes are, Family with the sub themes African American Male, Matriarch, and Children; Spirit with the sub themes Faith, Spirituality, and Inspiration; Identity with the sub themes Artist’s Voice, Triumph, and Hope and Vision; Community with the sub themes Ancestors, Social Issues, and Cultural Voice. These themes constitute …
Dr. Who?: The Science And Culture Of Medical Wear Design, Patricia Duignan
Dr. Who?: The Science And Culture Of Medical Wear Design, Patricia Duignan
Theses and Dissertations
The multi-million-dollar medical uniform industry has not utilized advancements in garment and textile technology that could positively impact the protection of healthcare professionals and patients. In most cases the uniforms meet basic requirements – they clothe the professional in a recognizable way. Little innovation in design, function and performance, has been applied to these garments. This is particularly evident in the case of the stereotypical white lab coat worn by many physicians, despite evidence indicating that these lab coats may carry contamination and play a role in the spread of deadly bacteria. Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are among the most …
Lashes To Ashes, Exploring The Hidden Dimensions Of Human Hair, Rania Chamsine
Lashes To Ashes, Exploring The Hidden Dimensions Of Human Hair, Rania Chamsine
Theses and Dissertations
Hair is power, beauty and seduction: a reflection of ethnicity and religion, and even a canvas for self-expression. A key feature in defining identity and social status, it holds the essence of our individuality. However, once removed from its original and natural setting—the epidermis—hair is seen as waste, and often evokes disgust. The objective of this thesis is to explore human hair, which particularly in the Arabic-Islamic region, carries great significance and raises many religious, cultural, and gender issues. Through design, and informed by critical design theory, I explore how this corporeal material can be reused and re-presented as a …
The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt
The Experiences Of Hispanic International Students As Interviewees In A Cross-Cultural Interview Project, Ren S. Carbutt
Theses and Dissertations
In the field of world language education, it has long been affirmed that language and culture are inseparable. It has also often been asked how teaching language and culture in an inseparable way is to be accomplished. One solution that has been proposed is ethnographic interviews. Other studies have demonstrated that interviewing native cultural informants is beneficial for language students. This study examined whether such interviews are also beneficial to the native informants. The participants in this project, sixteen native speakers of Spanish, were each interviewed three times by a pair of Spanish students who employed ethnographic techniques as a …
Never Put Your Head Down Unless You Pray: The Stories Of African American Men In The Wisconsin Prison System, Julia Marie Kirchner
Never Put Your Head Down Unless You Pray: The Stories Of African American Men In The Wisconsin Prison System, Julia Marie Kirchner
Theses and Dissertations
Prior research on offender narratives has not examined culture as a factor in how prisoners explain their crimes. This qualitative ethnographic research project explores the self-constructions of African American male prisoners using both participant observation with active gang members on the street and discourse analysis of over 300 letters written by incarcerated men. Focusing primarily on six prisoner consultants, this study investigates the claims that offenders make about themselves in reference to their identity. These convicted felons justify their crimes as rational under the circumstances prevalent in segregated inner cities. In reference to economic crimes such as drug dealing and …
Blues Trope As A Cultural Intersection In Alice Walker's The Temple Of My Familiar And Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues, Julia Leuthardt
Blues Trope As A Cultural Intersection In Alice Walker's The Temple Of My Familiar And Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues, Julia Leuthardt
Theses and Dissertations
Though bound historically through hundreds of years, the African-Native American relation has not received much attention by scholars of literature; hence, the emphasis of this thesis is to investigate the literary portrayal of the interethnic relation between African Americans and Native Americans through the blues trope. The blues trope provides an intriguing literary platform for the psychological and physical struggles in finding an identity within such a diverse multiethnic society like the United States. For African American writer Alice Walker and Native American author Sherman Alexie the blues trope is a successful literary device in expressing long lost and rediscovered …
Visualizing Cultural Impermanence Through Entropic Design, Clifford Meena Khalili
Visualizing Cultural Impermanence Through Entropic Design, Clifford Meena Khalili
Theses and Dissertations
Entropy is a process of gradual decline as a system loses the strength to maintain itself. It begins with disorder and results in complete transformation. As a multi-cultural American, it has been my experience that the maintenance of my Iranian heritage parallels this concept. A method of visual communication that incorporates entropy is able to express notions of impermanence, disorder and transformation. This project is focused on employing entropy in the process of design and image making by using the transformation of my cultural identity as primary content.
Negotiating Identity: Culturally Situated Epideictic In The Victorian Travel Narratives Of Isabella Bird, Katherine Reilly Robinson
Negotiating Identity: Culturally Situated Epideictic In The Victorian Travel Narratives Of Isabella Bird, Katherine Reilly Robinson
Theses and Dissertations
Epideictic rhetoric, one of the classical modes of persuasion described by Aristotle, has faced some criticism concerning its value in the realm of rhetoric. Though attitudes have been shifting over the last several decades, there is still a tendency to undervalue epideictic, falling back on the Aristotelian system of ceremonial oratory. However, its “praise and blame” style of persuasion employs of the type of rhetor / audience identification described by Kenneth Burke. Epideictic rhetoric is a major component of virtually any communication, as the speaker or writer seeks to create a bond with that audience so as to persuade them …
Culture And A Connection, Chris Arias
Culture And A Connection, Chris Arias
Theses and Dissertations
Culture and a Connection In the Spanish province of Asturias, many homes built in the16th and 17th centuries are constructed of dry-stacked stone and large timbers for floor joists, rafters, decking. They are topped with large, irregularly shaped roof slates. Alongside many of these homes stands a rectangular granary called a cabazo. The cabazo, similarly constructed, is a stand-alone structure about twenty feet tall, six feet wide and twenty feet long. The main portion, (the storage area), stands ten feet off the ground atop two large, tapered columns. The upper level is typically separated form the lower level by a …
Media To Medium: Representations Of Violence, War & Women In Pop Culture, Althea Georgelas
Media To Medium: Representations Of Violence, War & Women In Pop Culture, Althea Georgelas
Theses and Dissertations
My work is inspired by the mass Media and how it affects the world around me. I am interested in how violence, war and women are represented in popular culture and how this has trickled down into social behavior. I also wonder how much entertainment media reflects deep social ideals. I define mass media as the viral proliferation of ideas using television, cinema, video gaming and the Internet. I am concerned about the social and psychological affects of violent media and how it impacts the lives of women and girls. This is of particular interest to me because I am …
Authentic Out-Of-Class Communication In Study Abroad Programs: Success Defined By Continued Motivation And Cultural Appreciation, Erin Fairlight Olsen
Authentic Out-Of-Class Communication In Study Abroad Programs: Success Defined By Continued Motivation And Cultural Appreciation, Erin Fairlight Olsen
Theses and Dissertations
The benefits of study abroad experience in second language acquisition have evolved from unchallenged assumption to the focus of rigorous study in the past several decades. The benefits of out-of-class contact with natives have likewise been questioned. Despite conflicting evidence of its benefit, students frequently cite out-of-class conversations with natives as among the most beneficial aspects of their language acquisition experience. Reviewing the extant literature, this study narrows in on authentic communication-that is, meaningful out-of-class contact with natives, in which students are able to genuinely express themselves and their personality-as a previously unanalyzed element of study abroad research. It is …
Taking Mormons Seriously: Ethics Of Representing Latter-Day Saints In American Fiction, Terrol Roark Williams
Taking Mormons Seriously: Ethics Of Representing Latter-Day Saints In American Fiction, Terrol Roark Williams
Theses and Dissertations
My paper examines the ethics of representing Mormons in serious American fiction, viewed through two primary texts, Bayard Taylor's nineteenth-century dramatic poem The Prophet and Maureen Whipple's epic novel The Giant Joshua. I also briefly examine Walter Kirn's short stories “Planetarium” and “Whole Other Bodies.” Using Werner Sollors' and Matthew Frye Jacobson's writings on ethnicity as foundational, I argue in that Mormonism constitutes an ethnicity, which designation accentuates the ethical demands of those who represent the group. I also use W.J.T. Mitchell's theories of representation as the basis of my arguments of the ethics of representing ethnicity. As ethical theorists, …
Would You Believe Me If I Said I Didn't Need You, Andrew Kozlowski
Would You Believe Me If I Said I Didn't Need You, Andrew Kozlowski
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis is an attempt to expand upon the ideas that permeate the practice of art making that has developed over the past two years. Art criticism, theory, history, and practice are used to give definition to the boundaries of my ever-shifting body of work. Focusing on the elusive nature of communication in both public and private spheres, these projects range from installation and sculptural work, to web projects, photography, and drawing.
Versions Of America: Reading American Literature For Identity And Difference, Raj G. Chetty
Versions Of America: Reading American Literature For Identity And Difference, Raj G. Chetty
Theses and Dissertations
My paper examines how American authors of the South Asian Diaspora (Indian-American or South Asian American) can be read 1) as simply American and 2) without regard to ethnicity. I develop this argument using American authors Jhumpa Lahiri, a first generation American of Bengali-Indian descent, and Bharati Mukherjee, an American of Bengali-Indian origin. I borrow from Deepika Bahri's materialist aesthetics in postcolonialism (in turn borrowed from members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory) and include theoretical insights from Rey Chow, Graham Huggan, and R. Radhakrishnan regarding multiculturalism, identity politics, and diaspora studies. Huggan and Radhakrishnan's insights are especially useful …
The Huhugam Heritage Center: An Administrative History And Case Study In Tribal Museum Issues, Christina Esposito
The Huhugam Heritage Center: An Administrative History And Case Study In Tribal Museum Issues, Christina Esposito
Theses and Dissertations
The Museum Studies thesis project represented by this document entailed the compilation of a board of directors orientation packet for the Gila River Indian Community's recently established Huhugam Heritage Center (HHC) in Chandler, Arizona. The packet, including an administrative history of the institution and an annotated bibliography of museological resources on issues relevant to tribal museums, provides current and future members of the HEZC Board of Directors with information needed to effectively carry out their duties. Research and preparation of the administrative history constituted a case study of Native American tribal museum development. The history supplies members of the HHC …
Bridging The Gap: Why Many High School Writers Are Not Successful In College Composition Classes, Amy Stutzman Park
Bridging The Gap: Why Many High School Writers Are Not Successful In College Composition Classes, Amy Stutzman Park
Theses and Dissertations
It may be useful to identify this so-called gap that seems to plague first-year college writers before attempting to discover why it exists. In order to identify the gap, I want to define these writers who are leaving high school and finding difficulty in college composition classes. Patricia Bizzell defines basic writers as "those who are least well prepared for college" (Bizzell "What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College?" 294). I'd like to broaden her definition of basic writers and use the term "inexperienced writers" as the field now defines them. In order to fully understand why most college …
The Generation Of Forms And Thai Typeface Design, Pornprapha Phatanateacha
The Generation Of Forms And Thai Typeface Design, Pornprapha Phatanateacha
Theses and Dissertations
Changes in culture, design, fashion and lifestyle are very common for a developing country such as Thailand. Losing the identity and significant quality of Thai culture is the biggest concern in this rapid movement in Thai society. The biggest challenge is to preserve the existing culture within the development in the society. These problems within the rapid change not only affect Thai lifestyle and fashion but also Thai graphic design. There is a trend in poster design, advertising, and packaging to follow Western design. That influence suggests that Thai design follow a Western model in order to be as successful. …
Making Friends To Last A Lifetime: An Ethnographic Study Of Parasocial Relationships And Soap Opera Characters, Emmalee Elizabeth Haight Pryor
Making Friends To Last A Lifetime: An Ethnographic Study Of Parasocial Relationships And Soap Opera Characters, Emmalee Elizabeth Haight Pryor
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this study was to build theory about parasocial relationships and to examine what affect, if any, religion had on parasocial relationships. Using qualitative methods, the researcher watched the show three times with five women followed by an in-depth interview. The women chosen were LDS stay-at-home moms who had watched a soap opera for at least a year.
From this data came several surprising findings about religion and soap opera viewing. The women said they did not feel guilty about the content of the shows, rather the time required to watch. This guilt was alleviated by structuring their …
Cross-Cultural Conversion Narratives: An American Missionary In Taichung, Taiwan, Amy Nelson
Cross-Cultural Conversion Narratives: An American Missionary In Taichung, Taiwan, Amy Nelson
Theses and Dissertations
I was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was eight years old. You could say I was sort of born into it, as my father, mother, seven other siblings, and both sets of grandparents are all members as well. I grew up in a small, rural town in Southern Idaho where vegetation is almost as sparse as non-LDS families. As children we were never quite sure which denomination these families belonged to: that they were not Mormon was the only distinction we made. As I was growing up my parents saw to …
A Study Of Haitian Mormon Converts Dwelling In New York City: A Cross-Cultural Perspective In Understanding, Interpreting, And Experiencing The Mormon Subculture, Yvon Milien
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines the roles played by understanding, interpretation of practices, and experience in Mormon culture when Haitians convert to Mormonism. In relationship to their previous cultural practices, this thesis explores whether Haitian converts develop one of three types of behaviors: discard old practices, retain elements of old practices, or seek to establish a balance between former and new religious practices. In-depth interviews with twelve subjects living in New York City suggest that most active converts discarded their old cultural traditions. This study suggests that only interpretation influences developing types of behavior. However, it was not expected that most converts …
A Voice From The Fire: The Authority Of Experience, Colleen C. Bernhard
A Voice From The Fire: The Authority Of Experience, Colleen C. Bernhard
Theses and Dissertations
Over all, this thesis was written to be a "ramble" of its own around and through three issues that are central to the writing of the personal essay-voice, authority, and experience-and central to the emergence of this author's own sense of "self."
Drawing upon years of voluminous journals, this collection of six personal essays demonstrates what the scholarly introduction proposes: that the personal essay is both a valid genre and a magnificent bridge from informal life-writing to genuine literary accomplishment. Drawing on Phillip Lopate's differentiation of "memoiristic" essays from the more classic autobiographical form, this collection includes three of each …
A Study Of Art Unions In The United States Of America In The Nineteenth Century, Jane Aldrich Dowling Adams
A Study Of Art Unions In The United States Of America In The Nineteenth Century, Jane Aldrich Dowling Adams
Theses and Dissertations
During the first half of the nineteenth century in many cities in Germany, England and the United States, free and public galleries were opened to encourage the purchase of art works. Some sponsoring organizations were controlled by artists and some by interested lay persons. All of the sponsors hoped to educate the public and to elevate artistic taste as well as to sell works of art. Many of the organizations offered a premium in the form of a yearly engraving to induce interest and to promote membership. Often there was an annual distribution of paintings and other works of art …
Chinese Cultural Center, Wei Dong
Chinese Cultural Center, Wei Dong
Theses and Dissertations
During this period of high technology, designers are eager to create environments that have strong emotional appeal to people's physiology and psychology. Our exploration of the natural living space has become all the more an elusive search as modern technology advances. Interior design, in its concern for environmental engineering, endeavors to exploit the spiritual aspect of human resources. Through this message, people are inspired to higher planes of existence.A. PROJECT To design a Chinese Cultural center. B. PURPOSE 1. To introduce the traditional and contemporary Chinese culture to western people. 2. To illustrate and describe the philosophies of Chinese life …
The Impact Of The Mormon Migration On The Community Of Kirtland, Ohio, 1830-1839, Mark R. Grandstaff
The Impact Of The Mormon Migration On The Community Of Kirtland, Ohio, 1830-1839, Mark R. Grandstaff
Theses and Dissertations
In the early decades of the nineteenth-century, an era of cultural change and disorientation, many turned to revivals to displace insecure emotionalism and to insure themselves of a place in the emerging society. Others, such as the Mormons sought an all encompassing plan that would dispel confusion and restore order to a decadent society. This search led some Mormons to follow their Prophet to Kirtland, Ohio. Once in Kirtland, various sociological conflicts developed which affected how the citizens of Kirtland would perceive their Mormon neighbors. Tantamount to these conflicts was the rapidly increasing Mormon population which triggered a corresponding rise …
Evidences Of Culture Contacts Between Polynesia And The Americas In Precolumbian Times, John L. Sorenson Sr.
Evidences Of Culture Contacts Between Polynesia And The Americas In Precolumbian Times, John L. Sorenson Sr.
Theses and Dissertations
Of the great unsettled problems of archaeology and anthropology perhaps the most hotly debated has been the relative importance of migration, diffusion, and independent invention in the origin of culture elements. The question has obvious importance, both for a proper understanding of man and culture, that ambitiously comprehensive goal of modern anthropology, and for historical reconstruction, the latter a necessary preliminary of the former.
The concern of this thesis is with culture movement in the eastern Pacific Ocean area. The Pacific area as a whole has long been the geographical center of the diffusion problem (if we may so term …